Quote from: Jonesome on Jun 23, 2019, 08:13:32 AM
Quote from: Gilfryd on May 11, 2019, 06:39:55 PM
3 is different in that right from the start it's everything is awful and we're all f**ked - the universe is trying to put you down no matter what. People often say it's more in line with Scott's film, perhaps on a surface level detail it is, but I can't shake off its overwhelmingly/obnoxiously dreary tone it never quit earned.
I think what bothers me about Alien³ the most is how it's a thematic departure from the previous. They are about survival, whereas 3 is about nihilism. Even stylistically, 3 has this steampunk design that I feel is out of place compared to the cyberpunk feel of the first two, although this is a composite of David Twohy and Vincent Ward's ideas. Frankly it's amazing that the producers were even able to slap together a coherent script, and Fincher direct a competent movie out of the rushed mess they had.
It's probably a major factor in Fincher being one of the most accomplished director's to date. His first full feature film was an absolute nightmare, and yet somehow he still managed to deliver what I consider to be a flawed masterpiece.
Losing Hicks and Newt was a gut punch, the film for the most part is definitely nihilistic, Ripley reduced to a shell of her past self, stranded on a prison planet filled with murderers and rapists, having to come to terms with losing yet another 'family' at the hands of both the Company and the alien. To make matters worse she learns that she is carrying a queen inside her. She's facing certain death, but in the end she decides to go out on her own terms, killing what we assume is the last surviving xeno and denying the company its prize, even after human Bishop tries to sell her the happy ending. Even the prisoners redeem themselves in some way, giving up their own lives in an effort to destroy the alien. Alien 3 ends on a triumphant note to some degree, the alien destroyed, Ripley finds peace and most of all the main villains of the series, the Company fail in their efforts to secure a specimen.
My only problem with the Hicks, Ripley, Newt family unit in future sequels is that there are no stakes, no way would Cameron have the balls to break them up by killing one or two of them off, they would make a home on earth for a while and then for 'reasons' somehow get dragged back into the fray and we'd just get a bigger version of Aliens. I'm sure it would have been great, but at the same time it would have been too safe. That's my opinion of course.
